Investing.com - Here’s a preview of the top 3 things that could rock markets tomorrow
1. FOMC Decision in Focus
The Federal Open Committee Market (FOMC) two-day meeting got underway on Tuesday, and will conclude Wednesday with an interest rate decision and the release of a monetary policy statement at 2:00 PM ET.
According to investing.com’s Fed rate monitor tool, more than 90% of traders expect the Federal Reserve to leave rates unchanged.
While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to stand pat on interest rates, it is likely to reaffirm its expectations for further growth and inflation in the near term, paving the way for ongoing gradual rate hikes, Stifel said.
The Federal Reserve, however, is widely expected to hike rates at its next meeting in June, when it is slated to provide its updated Economic Summary of Projects, which includes estimates on future growth, inflation and rate hikes.
“We expect the Fed to next hike rates at its June meeting, with little change in the ‘dots’ and forecasts. We continue to look for a total of three hikes this year, followed by a pause, and two additional hikes in 2019 where we think the hiking cycle ends,” Morgan Stanley said.
Both the 10Y US Treasury yield and dollar rose sharply on Tuesday ahead of the FOMC decision, as the latter turned positive for the year.
2. Traders Fret Prospect of Second Straight Weekly Build in US Crude Supplies
Inventory data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday is expected to show a second-straight weekly build in U.S. crude stockpiles.
Analysts forecast crude inventories fell by about 0.739 million barrels in the week ended April 27.
Weekly U.S. production figures are also expected to garner added investor attention after the EIA reported Monday U.S. oil production rose to a record 10.264 million barrels a day in February.
Crude settled sharply lower on Tuesday as investor attention shifted to the prospect of a second weekly build in U.S. crude supplies despite uncertainty over whether US President Donald Trump would preserve the Iran nuclear deal.
Crude oil futures settled 1.93% lower at $67.25 a barrel.
3. Apple to Spark Nasdaq Rally?
Shares of Apple rose more than 4% in after hours trade on Tuesday, after the tech giant reported fiscal second quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations but sold fewer iPhones than expected.
The tech giant posted earnings of $2.73 share on $61.1 billion in revenue against analysts’ expectations for earnings of $2.70 per share on $60.82 billion in revenue.
Apple eased investor fears of poor iPhone X sales performance as Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement that "customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter."
The average selling prices of its handset was $728 missing estimates of $742, while services revenue were up 21% to $9.2bn, easily beating analysts’ forecasts.
Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones, which was short of the 52.54 million iPhone sales expected.
As was widely reported, Apple announced a $100 billion share buyback and boosted its dividend by 16% to $0.73.
Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed at $169.10, up 2.32%.